P-61 — The Black Widow Survivors

The P-61 was not the most glamorous airplane of WWII. It also
wasn’t the fastest, biggest, most produced, or had the highest
number of kills. It did, however, have one job to do, and it
did that job very well, hence the nickname “Black Widow”. It
also sported a unique design, much like the P-38, which resulted
in a very nice looking airplane.

The Black Widow concept began early in the war as the USAAF
generals started to realize the importance of the British RADAR
systems. The goal was to have a hunter/killer airplane that could
fly at night and track down its prey using RADAR. Early airborne
radar units were large, heavy, and power hungry. And they used
antennas that looked a lot like big clunky outdoor TV antennas.
As RADAR was further refined, the sets got smaller, and a version
emerged that used a small parabolic dish. This would be perfect
for installing in a medium twin-engined fighter aircraft. Thus
was born the P-61 project.

The P-61 was a twin-boom airplane, with the engines at the
front of each boom, and the tail and rudders at the back end
of the booms. A pod on the center line of the plane housed the
cockpit, radar, a navigator/radar operator, and gunner. The
nose of the Black Widow was fiberglass, and the radar dish sat
inside the nose. The P-61 was outfitted with (2) Pratt & Whitney
R-2800 Double Wasp engines, 18 cylinders each, with an output of
2000 HP per engine. Later versions of the P-61 saw that horsepower
level increased to 2800 HP per engine. That increase in power
boosted top speed from around 366MPH up to 440MPH. The Black Widow
had a 66-foot wing span, was about 50-feet long, and sat 14-foot 8-inches
tall. She weighed in at 24,000 pounds empty, and could carry an
additional 16,000 pounds of payload and fuel. The offensive sting
was powerful...(4) 50-caliber machine guns and (4) 20mm cannons.

The P-61 benefited from being developed later during the war.
As a result, it was a very polished and refined airplane. It
had a lot of automation for its day, and could literally fly
itself into the air once the takeoff run was started. Pilots tell
me that one could make a turn into a dead engine, something that
would be suicidal in most other airplanes.

The Black Widow did not have an overwhelming number of kills in
WWII. The reason is that it came along rather late in the war,
and by that time, the AXIS partners had little left to throw
at the Allies. If someone did dare to take to the skies under
the cover of darkness, and a P-61 was nearby, they were as good
as toast.

A total of 742 P-61’s were built, including XP-61 and YP-61
pre-production aircraft, then three production models, the P-61A,
P-61B, and the more powerful P-61C. In addition, 36 F-15A photo
recon variants were produced. Today, only 3 survive as complete
airframes, one is undergoing restoration, and one is known to
survive in China.

P-61 Black Widow On Static Display

3 Black Widows were stolen from the USAAF by communist Chinese
troops in the final days of WWII. This one is on display at the
Institute’s museum outside of Beijing. Jeff Kolln has recently
confirmed that the other two were destroyed, and also confirmed
the serial number of the survivor.